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TenStupid Thingsthat keepchurchesfrom growing
Geoff surratt
How Leaders Can Overcome Costly Mistakes
 
1Trying to Do It All
“Just because I’m the janitordoesn’t mean I can’t perform your wedding.”
 
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hen I was pastoring little Church on the Lake in Texas, my schedule followed a similar pattern each week. I began every Monday morning by resigning as pastor. I told my wife and whoeverelse would listen that the church was full of whiners, the leaders werewimps, and the preaching was poor. Although they often agreed, by noon my little pity party was over and I headed into the office tostart the week. The first task was to see if we were still in business.I checked the offering count from the weekend, saw what bills weredue, checked our account balance, and breathed a sigh of relief if wehad enough in the bank to pay the bills and my salary for one moreweek. I then found my way back to my office to begin praying thatGod would give me one more sermon. Actually, two more sermons,because I had to preach on Wednesday night as well. Actually, threemore sermons until we finally canceled the Sunday night ser viceafter I decided I couldn’t stand listening to myself speak three timesa week anymore. (When I first started pastoring, I prepared four ser-mons a week because I also taught Sunday school. I quit teaching orgoing to Sunday school early on because I had always hated Sunday school as a child and figured I didn’t have to go anymore now that Iwore big-boy pants.)Tuesday was accounting day. That was when I entered all of thetithe checks into the database I kept on my personal computer. I knewthis wasn’t the wisest way to keep the books, but it was better than thesystem they used when I came to the church. A sweet older lady wecalled Sister Dolly used to count the money, make the deposits, andwrite the checks. The challenge was that math wasn’t Sister Dolly’sstrong suit. Occasionally she added checks to the balance rather thansubtract them. That can cause some consternation at the end of themonth. Once a month another volunteer took her work, mistakesand all, and transfered it into a handwritten ledger. Any expenseshe didn’t recognize he lumped into the miscellaneous category. Onemonth we spent more on miscellaneous than on all the other catego-ries combined. The next month I became the church bookkeeper.On Wednesdays, in addition to coming up with a fresh word from
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